Rampant Redsox put the Old Cranleighans to the sword

A rampant Redsox performance saw the team put the Old Cranleighans to the sword with a convincing 7-1 win in the sun shine on SLW this morning. This result secures the Redsox at least second place in the league (keeping the pressure on leaders Epsom) and guarantees a home fixture in the League Cup semi-final – so all in all a good day’s work (indeed if Epsom lose or draw their final game next week a win against Crawley would make Redsox league champions).

Once again everyone played well in what was an excellent team performance; good movement off the ball, fast ball speed and options for the man in possession allowed us to play fluent attacking hockey, especially down the right side as Hoops and Paxo linked well to set up chances for our mobile & always threatening forward line. Helped by our good short corner routine we went into half time 4-0 with the OCs looking somewhat bamboozled, they bought a youthful squad of 15 and were clearly expecting to push us hard.

Once again Martin looked sharp and led the defence well with Wilcox, Lowe, Bastow (welcome back), Pringle and a sprightly Ashby all ensuring very few chances fell to OC’s. Our excellent midfield of Crosby, Paxman and Hooper ran the game and with Chris “five goal” Keevey in devastating form in front of goal ably supported by Mike “buggered leg” Sartorius, Chris ”Two Games in a Day” Armitage and Micky “pitching wedge” Denehy. For the record the scorers were: Keevey x5, Hooper x1, Chris Armitage x1.

On his Redsox managerial debut Richard “I pulled my calf muscle taking luggage off a Heathrow carousel” Dodds was quick to point out that the team’s success was all down to his incisive decision making from the dugout. Big thanks to Mike Gray for once again umpiring excellently, Geoff Ashe for his touchline support and as well as Dodds for coming along to run the side despite his injury. And as always, the Redsox enjoyed a good number of beers after the game.

It might seem a tad harsh not to give Keevey the man of the match award after his five-goal haul (which makes him top Redsox gun for the season) but instead it went to Steve “Paxo” Paxman who ran the game from centre midfield with a hugely assured performance and showed real class in his control and excellent linking play. Paxo has hit a rich vein of form over the last few weeks and has helped lift the level of Redsox hockey.

Next week we have our final league match away at Crawley @3pm, please also diary yourselves for a home semi-final cup match against Southgate on April 1st and a possible final at RHC on April 8th. Can you confirm availability for all these dates to Bartie this weekend as he is away on Monday for two weeks’ holiday and we’d like to sort out all the Vets squads for next few weeks before he leaves. So far this has been a hugely enjoyable Redsox season and I am keen we keep it going if we can, so do everything you can to be available for selection.

Well done to the Rustlers but bad luck SuperVets (I am sure you’ll wrap up your league soon!).

Two team snaps attached.

Micky